A Deal Is A Deal
by Orchida
Summary: Piper has a simple heart to heart with her whitelighter from the future.


I know this should be a new chapter of Whispers, but let's just say season six inspired me. The timeline is set between Chris crossed and Witchstock, and this is not a truth fic. Just a simple moment inspired by a line from witchstock.

By now everyone knows I don't own Charmed.

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A Deal is A Deal

Piper placed down the dish of Wyatt's food, exchanging it with a cloth and then proceeding to wipe his sticky face and hands. It was amazing how much mess he could get in, even when she spoon-fed him and his hands didn't touch the food. "Isn't that all better now?" She pulled a face at him, which, much to her dismay succeeded in nothing but a blank look. Piper sighed, picking up the utensils and carrying them to the sink. No matter how hard she tried, conversation with a two-year-old, despite how cute he was just wasn't up to scratch on a good old chat with her sisters. There was only so much gurgling she could interpret into words without admitting she was crazy.

She was happy for the pair and she couldn't grouch, as she had been the one to give them both the firm push that they needed, but she was used to bustle and activity in the manor. The constant quiet was just wrong. She missed Phoebe moaning about her love life and Paige's jokey nature; she missed the constant support of having her sisters around. She even missed the arguments over who was hogging the bathrooms in the morning.

Loneliness was not a word Piper would associate with her life, but for the past few days her home seemed to grow bigger, emphasising just how alone she was. The manor was far too big for a single woman and her two year old.

So disturbed by the abnormal silence had she been that she had almost called for Leo. Thankfully, she had shoved aside the temptation, reasoning that it was entirely selfish on her part. Leo had a job to do and it was she who had asked him to keep his distance. Having Leo around for any other reason than their son was just too confusing. Wyatt needed his Father, but Piper had to get used to relying on herself again.

Then there was Chris, who after his recent jaunt to the future only appeared in front of his charge to request her presence for a demon vanquish. If possible, he seemed to have distanced himself more, though the boy had just lost his fiancé.

After Leo's speech that day, she had expected Chris to be more open - to a certain extent - but it seemed he was only pushing himself further away in his grief. The idea to talk to him had crossed her mind more than once, at least it would be a two-sided conversation, but it was getting the boy to stand still long enough that was the problem. He came, asked for her help in a vanquish. She did it, he orbed her home and then he disappeared. He barely even spoke to her, let alone give her the time to bring up a painful conversation.

Wyatt gurgled happily in his high chair; at least somebody was in high spirits. She walked over to her son, lifting him out of the chair and placing him back in his playpen. Wyatt all sorted out, she straightened up and began to go through her mental list of household chores. The washing was on its last load and still spinning, the shopping was complete, bathrooms were clean, and the kitchen was sparkling.

Unbelievable as it sounded, Piper Halliwell had some spare time. From the looks of her son, he was beginning to settle, not wanting to disturb him she decided to do the second thing that she loved - cooking.

Walking around her kitchen and searching out for the correct equipment she would need, it occurred to Piper just how long ago it had been since she'd gone back to her roots. There always seemed to be some crisis - magical or otherwise - and by the time everything was sorted out and back to normal all Piper needed and had the energy to do was sleep.

Deciding to start with something simple, it would be best to go for something easy rather than complicated and time consuming. After all, there was no rule for how long Wyatt would stay quiet and the wrong dish left unattended would be a waste of ingredients and her time.

Piper scanned her memory and came up with the perfect recipe, once decided she rooted through her cupboards and pulled out all of the necessary ingredients.

Bowls, trays, spoons, flour, eggs and all sat neatly on her kitchen table. Everything prepared and everything ready. Which was exactly when the kitchen was illuminated in a bright light. With a grimace, Piper turned to the whitelighter who was about to ruin her morning. Chris, she should have known.

The said whitelighter either didn't see her disgruntled frown or chose to ignore it, Piper leaned more towards the latter.

"There's a new demon that I think-"

"Ah!" She clamped her hands to her ears. As soon as Chris had shut his mouth, she moved her hands back down to her side. "Has the demon attacked you?"

Chris looked confused. "What? No."

"Is it coming after us?"

"Not yet, but-"

Her index finger pointed into the air. "There's the magic word." She turned around and back to face the table. "I'm in the middle of something."

Chris turned to look at the table, complete with all of its ingredients. "You're cooking?" He asked, exasperated.

"Well not yet, but I'm about to."

"Cooking is more important than the well being of your son?"

Piper glanced at Wyatt, the blond haired child happily playing with his toys in his playpen. "He looks fine to me. Whatever it is that's your whole reason of being here isn't attacking right now, so in the spare time I've been given I'm going to cook."

Chris rolled his eyes. "Cooking can wait."

"No, no it can't. _Your_ demons can wait." Chris gave a frustrated sigh. "I'll tell you what fair is fair, you help me with my baking and _after _I'll help you with your demons."

The two stood at loggerheads for a second before Chris gave in. Piper was set in her stubborn mode, and no matter how hard he tried - Chris knew from experience - there would be no changing her mind. "Alright, but you have to help me straight after we've finished baking."

"Deal." Piper nodded, not even attempting to hide the delighted smile at the fact she had won, not that she would have let the argument go any other way.

"Okay." She clapped her hands together. I'm making cookies."

Chris moved towards the table, already shrugging off the jacket he was wearing. "What kind?"

"I was thinking oatmeal and raisin."

"Oh." His tone was one of disappointment. "Not chocolate chip?"

Piper turned an inquisitive eyebrow onto Chris. "No, not chocolate, I was going for the healthier version."

"The Kids prefer chocolate." He simply answered.

Piper blinked. "Future reference you let slip there?"

Chris shrugged. "It's a known fact that everyone favours chocolate."

"Not everyone and my boy is not going to grow up eating everything chocolate."

Chris smirked. Piper always said the same thing, even in the future. Growing up in the Halliwell manor meant healthy eating all the way, Piper was anything if not cautious over what her boys ate. Not that from time to time they didn't splurge.

"Oatmeal and raisin it is." Chris grabbed a hold of a bag of flour, moving a glass bowl nearer to him and sieving in the required amount, not even needing to weigh out the ingredients.

Piper watched impressed. Chris seemed to be a natural at baking and had obviously done so a lot in the future. "Where'd you learn all this?" She asked, Chris leant forward and grabbed a hold of two eggs.

He looked up and for a moment Piper could swear that she'd seen his face harden. "I used to bake with my Mom."

Piper nodded, excepting the simple answer, she hoped to do that one day with her own son. Of course being a witch, she imagined they would do the same over potions as well. "When Wyatt's old enough I'd like to do the same."

Chris stared at her, serious green eyes boring into warm brown. "I'm sure one day you will." He answered, a sad tone creeping through in his voice. Piper took it to mean he was missing his own time and family. She didn't think she would be able to travel to a different time, leaving everything she knew behind. Being separated from her sisters for a matter of days was hard enough as it was.

The witch - whitelighter breathed in deeply, seemingly trying to shift his melancholy mood. Ever since he had come back from the future, he had tried to separate this family from the one that he had grown up with. Thinking back over the time when both he and Wyatt had helped his Mom to bake and then living a similar moment right now, blurred his hard resolve to keep them apart. The more time he spent with his past family, the more the line wavered unsteadily. It was something he just couldn't ignore.

Chris placed down the eggs that he had been about to crack open. "Maybe I should just go look the demon's up in the book, leave you to this."

Piper shook her head. "I think you've spent enough time on your own." Chris looked up and this time his eyes were filled with unshed tears. Whether his sadness was caused by the thoughts of his family or Bianca, Piper wasn't sure. He looked away from her face and shifted uncomfortably. Sensing his unease Piper shifted the conversation.

"Besides, if I have to spend one more minute in this house on my own I'll go crazy. You're doing me a favour if you stay and bake."

"You're not enjoying the time on your own?" This Piper was no different from the future Piper in the fact that any quiet time and moment to herself was welcome.

Piper smiled wistfully, taking an egg and cracking it into the bowl. "You know you'd think so, but now that the dream's a reality - not so much."

Chris took the bag of oatmeal and emptied it in with the rest, picking up a wooden spoon and stirring the mixture together. "Really? Why?"

"I guess I'm just used to activity and I miss talking to people who can talk back." She smiled wryly with a glance to Wyatt.

"I'm surprised to hear that from you." He said, honestly.

"I know I shouldn't complain." She grumbled, "Knowing my luck all too soon it'll be back to normal and I'll be dying for a bit of R and R." She swept a stray lock of hair out of her face. "I guess I miss my sisters, I've lived so long with them now that it's hard to adjust to life without them." She walked to the fridge and grabbed a carton of milk. "Sorry, I guess I shouldn't go burdening you with my troubles."

"No, it's okay." It was weird, topsy turvey on what he was used to, but okay.

Piper nodded. She had always been the sort to deal with her own problems and from the little she knew of Chris he seemed the same. Maybe that was why she was divulging her secrets to him, then again, he was the only person who knew about her current situation, wasn't entirely involved and wouldn't be hurt if she spoke the truth. Saying all of this to Phoebe and Paige would make them feel guilty for leaving.

She looked at him, stirring the mixture carefully in a way that only someone who loved to cook would do so, clad in a green, long sleeved t-shirt and simple pair of black trousers. His face twisted into an amused expression at whatever he was thinking. He looked to be far from the scheming, lying, no good future trouble version that she had so far built up in her mind. Maybe the real reason she had asked him to stay was that she wanted to get to know him a little better. Shift that picture of him into something better.

Chris had been living with them and sharing their lives for a little over a year now, and despite how much he seemed to know and understand the Charmed One's, Piper realised, she knew hardly anything on the boy himself. Part of that was due to the whole 'future consequences' which she swore if she heard one more time she would ram the words down his throat, but the other reason was that she had never given him the time. None of them had.

Of course having secrets kept from you tended to give one a reason for not trusting, and Chris had done plenty of that. Nevertheless, maybe if she trusted him with her own problems, he would do a turnabout and give her the same courtesy.

Piper reached for the raisins, pouring the dried fruits in whilst Chris stared the mixture to keep it even. "My sisters have flown the coop and I'm feeling a little nostalgic." She sighed, "Left out to dry."

Chris blinked; surprised at her honesty and that she was choosing to share this information with him. "That's not true." He stuttered. She looked at him, surprised at his outburst. "I mean you have Wyatt for a start. He needs you more than anyone, even your sisters."

"I know that." She answered, waving her hand dismissively. "Do you have siblings?"

"Piper," he spoke, his voice barely audible.

She kept his gaze for longer than necessary before turning away with a huff, why it mattered if she knew he had siblings didn't make any sense to her.

"Fine." She bit. "What I'm trying to say is that there's a special bond with my sisters." Maybe it was because they were the Charmed One's, they practically lived in each other's pockets, and now suddenly they'd been torn apart, ripped from the seams.

"At least you get to see them."

"True." She agreed, a brief flash of Prue running through her mind. At the thought of her departed sister, Piper wondered whether Chris had been speaking about Bianca, the woman he had just lost. Tentatively she decided to take the first step. "You miss her." She kept the sentence as a statement, not wanting Chris to assume she was prying, but giving him the option to answer if he chose to.

Chris sniffed, feeling the volatile emotions flood back into him as he thought over his fiancé's death. Endless sorrow at her death and overwhelming anger at the way it had happened. A hand enclosed over his own, smooth fingers brushing over his skin. Chris forced down the lump in his throat, refusing to look Piper in the eye and, so as not to look too rude, moving his hand out of her reach and over to grab a tray.

Dealing with his emotions over Bianca, and being comforted by his dead mother's past self would just be a little too hard to bare, especially with Piper not truly knowing his real identity. It would be like somebody sticking their hand into an open wound.

Chris cleared his throat, attempting to rectify the sudden tension that was clogging the normally warm and cosy kitchen. Piper was probably dismayed that he had shoved away her offer of solace, but for his own sake and hers, it was necessary.

Still he felt that he had to justify her actions. "She wasn't evil, she wasn't even bad really."

Piper snorted. She would hardly be the kind of girl that she'd like to see Wyatt bring home when he was older, and all out leather was never a good sign.

Hearing Piper's indignation, Chris clarified himself, "I know that it seemed that way, but what she was doing, in her mind was for the best." Ever since that day had happened, it had been all that he could think about and deep down he had wondered whether he would have done the same in her position.

"For the best?" Piper didn't see how coming back to find her wayward lover, sticking her hand literally into his chest and almost killing him, then dragging him back to where he didn't want to go - for the best. To her it sounded like something you wouldn't do to your worst enemy.

Chris chuckled, watching her face as she thought it over. "If she hadn't come back it would have been someone else, someone who didn't care what happened to me." He remembered her words and even then he had known she was speaking the truth.

Piper listened to his words, but unless she had been through the same situation it was difficult to understand. Compared to Chris and Bianca's relationship, hers and Leo's seemed like a walk in the park.

To Chris it was hard to explain without going into detail. Piper didn't know about Wyatt and so she couldn't understand exactly what had transpired.

Piper did understand one thing though. "You loved her and despite everything, in the end, that's all that really matters."

Chris smiled. When he had first started his relationship with Bianca, he had imagined what Piper would say. In his wildest dreams he hadn't expected her to be quite so exceptive. Even if Piper didn't see him as her son, it was still nice to hear what she thought straight from the horses mouth.

Chris didn't answer back and Piper took it to mean that the talk over Bianca had ended.

Chris scooped out a spoonful of mixture and placed it onto the prepared tray, Piper's gaze lingering on him as he prepared two more cookies, certain he was not going to say more, she too began to join in the baking once more. It was a silent agreement that the topic would not be discussed again.

Not wanting to push the already thin line between them, Piper tactfully turned the conversation onto a lighter subject. The tpic seeming hollow compared to what they had just discussed.

They finished the rest of the tray in silence, both consumed in their own thoughts. Once it was finished Piper took it out of Chris' hands and popped it into the oven. "It'll be about fifteen minutes." Her eyes wandered over to Wyatt, seeing that he was dozing she decided not to walk over in case he woke.

Chris watched Piper as she busied herself running hot water into the sink. She was wearing a simple, blue print sundress, her hair tied up into a high, swinging ponytail, her arms dusted with flour and her hands sticky with cookie mixture. It was a picture straight out of one of his memories. He could imagine a younger version of himself running into the kitchen at the smell of baking and wrapping his arms around Piper's legs.

He sat himself down on a chair and sprawled his upper body onto the table. His sleeves collecting flour and dough as he spread out. Piper tutted, not only was he causing a mess, but he obviously thought he could forgo the cleaning.

"Didn't anyone ever teach you to clean as you go?"

"Sure." He answered, "But that's usually your job." He flashed her a smile. "Mine's to sit here and wait for the cookies."

Piper shook her head and laughed. "I think your Mom was a soft touch."

He smiled quietly and looked down at his hands, but noticed that she didn't insist he helped her to clean. Instead, she worked around him, weaving her way around the table and depositing bowls into the sink.

Chris decided it was nice to live in his past for just a moment, as long as he didn't concentrate he could pretend it was just a normal Sunday morning from his childhood. Piper had always yearned for a normal life and in his opinion; she came most to life when she was bustling in her kitchen. Something magic couldn't take away from her was her love for cooking.

Minutes later and the kitchen was spotless and the smell of warm cookies permeated the air. The smell tantalising his taste buds and making his mouth water. It had been far too long since he had tasted any of Piper's baking.

"They're done." The brunette announced, placing oven gloves onto her hands and grabbing the tray out of the oven. In turn, she removed each cookie and placed them onto a cooling rack. Chris' hand reached out to grab the nearest cookie, biting into the soft oatey goodness. Piper smiled as she watched; glad to see the obvious approval glint in his eyes.

"How is it?"

"It's good." He grinned, swallowing and taking another bite. She had no idea just how good.

Piper nodded. "Good. Well the cookies are done so I guess I ought to hold up to my end of the bargain." Chris looked up, swallowing the last of his cookie. "The demons." She reminded him.

"Right the demons." he spoke softly. The words bringing him crashing back to reality, the here and now. He stood up from the table with a lingering glance at the cookies. It had been fun to forget his responsibilities and troubles for the morning, but the truth was he didn't have the time, and if he wanted more opportunities like this in his future then he had to stick to what he had come here to do.

Piper caught the glance. "You know if you want we can carry on with more baking." She beamed.

It was tempting, but Chris knew what he had to do. "Nice try, but a deal is a deal."

End.

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As usual let me know what you think and a new chapter of Whispers will be out really soon, it's my next priority.


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